Customized Auto-mix Stations

MOG has an automix function with one of the easiest customization features of any streaming music site. When you want to listen to more music that is similar to a particular song or album, you can start an automix. 

This is similar to the way Pandora creates radio stations. Pandora puts together a list of songs, but you can only skip songs a limited number of times, and you can't replay songs.

In contrast, MOG creates a queue of songs based upon the chosen artist or song. You can replay any song as often as you like or skip around the list.

Most streaming music sites learn what you want in your automix through your use of "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" for particular songs. Over time, your list is customized to your tastes. MOG allows you to customize your list right away through the use of a slider. On one end of the slider, you can decide to include songs by the chosen artist. Moving the slider to the right adds more variety with an increasing number of musicians. The ability to create an automix with only one artist is also unique to MOG. 

The terms "automix" and "MOG radio" are used interchangeably. In the MOG mobile apps and on the Smart TV app, it appears as an icon of a portable radio.

You Don't Have a Library in MOG

There have been complaints that unlike other music streaming services, MOG does not presently have a library where you can collect albums and songs for easy access.

This isn't exactly true. While you may not find the word "library," you do have a place to collect the albums, songs and playlists that is easily accessible. 

MOG recognizes that the library is where you save your favorite songs. It appears that the folks at MOG don't see a need for a "library"; rather, they let you save those favorite songs to "favorites." At any point that you have selected a song or album, you can press the star or choose "add to favorites" from a drop-down menu. Those songs are accessible by artist, album, song or playlist in the same way that you might find them in your library. In earlier versions of MOG, the library existed; one might suppose that it could be re-instated. 

History of MOG

MOG was founded by David Hyman, former CEO of Gracenote, in 2005. It moved slowly into the music streaming world. In late 2007, MOG partnered with Rhapsody to allow Rhapsody subscribers access to all of Rhapsody's catalogue using the MOG interface. In December 2009, MOG launched as its own music streaming subscription service. In 2010, MOG added its mobile apps for Android and iPhones. 

MOG has made it into our home theater with an app for LG networked components — LG's Smart TVs, Blu-ray players and Smart Upgrader. It can also be found on Squeezebox and Sonos systems. 

MOG Subscription Pricing

MOG offers two subscription plans. MOG Basic costs $4.99 per month and provides unlimited access to MOG online and from CE devices such as Roku and LG network TVs, media player and Blu-ray players. To listen to MOG on your mobile phone, you will need to spend $9.99 per month for a MOG Primo subscription.

At the Rethink Music Conference in April of 2011, MOG CEO David Hyman discussed the possibility of a free version of MOG. While it won't be the same as Spotify's limited free plan, he said he has plans to launch a free version of the MOG on-demand music streaming service in the next 11 months--March, 2012.

MOG Social Feature Gives Each Subscriber a Profile Page

MOG originated as a social site for dedicated music lovers. A profile page is created for each subscriber that shows the history of songs they've been playing, their top played songs and albums, and any public playlists. You can opt to keep this information private by going to the "feed preferences" in the "my settings" tab of your account. 

On your profile page, you can add your own posts to write about artists or music. These posts will appear when other subscribers do a search for an artist. Your posts will also appear in the feed of other MOGgers who follow you.

When you do a playlist search, the creator's user name is listed. Clicking on the user name brings up their profile page. If the person has similar tastes to yours, you may want to know when they create a new playlist. Clicking on the "follow" button will post that person's activity in your feed. If you want to discover new music, the profile pages are like asking a friend what good music they have heard lately.

MOG Is a Great Service for the Music Explorer

All in all, MOG's strengths lie in its discovery tools and ease of use for finding that perfect artist or song. The ability to instantly play music or add music from search results lets you move around MOG freely and continue to discover music and information about musicians. The social profile pages add all the other subscribers as a resource to find new music.

Even if you only use any one or two of MOG's unique features, you will easily find the music you want and discover new music you want to play. The only drawback is its limited availability on network media players and its inability to be streamed using AirPlay.